by Abdul Habib
4th August 2010

Faisal Khan is a hard hitting opening batsman from Lahore, Faisal was made for T20 cricket but unfortunately he was born a decade too early to take advantage of the T20 craze. Recently Faisal took part in the Lahore Premier League which started on the 26th of June 2010, he played for Bank Alfalah Blues. The Blues have played 5 games so far and they've won 4 of those games with one game abandoned due to the rain.

Faisal's captain for the Blues was Pakistani middle-order batsman Mohammad Yousuf who has just been called up to the Pakistan squad. Faisal tells me that Yousuf's visa was approved today (Wednesday 4th) and that he will be leaving on the next available flight.

"Yousuf bhai's visa was cleared today and he's really excited about playing for Pakistan again. He's confident that he can do well because he has a lot of experience of English conditions and because he's in good touch and good form with the bat thanks to playing for the Alfalah Blues in the Lahore Premier League." Faisal exclusively told Cricistan.com

I asked Faisal what sort of form Yousuf was in at the moment and he had the following to say.

"We had our first game on the 26th of June, I was opening and Yousuf bhai came in at number 4. I don't remember the numbers exactly but we shared a partnership of around 70 runs between us. I scored 110 off 65 balls and Yousuf made around 45 runs in 50 balls. The second game took place on the 2nd of July and Yousuf bhai scored about 60 runs off as many balls and in the third game on the 7th of July he only made 35 but that was a low scoring match curtailed by the rain. I didn't play in the 4th game so I don't know what Yousuf scored in that game but he's clearly in good touch with the bat." Faisal confirmed to Cricistan.com

Faisal seemed to think that Yousuf was keeping himself fit despite being away from the national team so I asked him how Yousuf had been doing that.

"Actually even before the LPL, Yousuf had been practising and he's a regular at the gym. In fact we often train together at the NCA gym and over the last few years Yousuf bhai has become very concious about his fitness. As you can see by Yousuf's scores within the last 4 to 5 weeks, he's not short of match practise. Playing at this level is no substitute for playing at the highest level but for a player of Yousuf's class and skills it doesn't really matter who he's playing against."

"Yousuf is a good backfoot player and that will help him in English conditions. I really hope he does well both for the sake of Pakistan cricket and because Yousuf is a good friend of mine too." Faisal stated to Cricistan.com

I'd like to thank Faisal for taking time out to speak to us here at Cricistan about Yousuf's preparations before he was called up for the tour of England.